Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 729

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1896

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
464	18 January 1876	John Sullivan Margaret Callaghan	John Sullivan Margaret Callaghan 💍 1876/649	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Domestic Servant	30 26	Oamaru Oamaru	12 months 12 months	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	76/533		18 January 1876	Revd. Jeremiah Donovan
465	19 January 1876	William Smith Clara McDonald Waldie	William Smith Clara McDonald Waldie 💍 1876/657	Bachelor Spinster	Jockey Domestic Servant	26 19	Reidston Oamaru	12 years 2 years	Coppertk in Ribble Street, Oamaru	76/378	Declaration made that no person in Colony has authority to give consent	19 January 1876	Revd. John Armitage
466	26 January 1876	Matthew Grant Fanny Hanning	Matthew Grant Fanny Hanning 💍 1876/650	Bachelor Widow	Contractor Hotelkeeper	39 35	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 10 years	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	76/534		28 January 1876	Revd. Patrick O'Leary
467	28 January 1876	Charles Cruickshank Mary Gallasher	Charles Cruickshank Mary Gallagher 💍 1876/635	Widower Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	27 21	Oamaru Oamaru	12 years 2 years	The Residence of Mr. Robert Blair in Coquet Street, Oamaru	76/520		28 January 1876	Revd. John Armitage
468	1 February 1876	John Young Isabella McConnell	John Young Isabella McConnell 💍 1876/640	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	33 20	Pukeuri Point Pukeuri Point	6 years 2 years	The Manse, Oamaru	76/524	Declaration made that no person in Colony has authority to give consent	1 February 1876	Revd. A. B. Todd
469	1 February 1876	David Genge Jane Mc[illegible] Bullock	David Genge Jane McCullogh 💍 1876/641	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	31 20	Cave Valley Oamaru	3 years 18 months	The Manse, Oamaru	76/526	Declaration made that no person in the Colony has authority to proceed	1 February 1876	Revd. A. B. Todd
470	3 February 1876	James Richmond Catherine Mary Grace	James Richmond Catherine Mary Grace 💍 1876/667	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 17	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 6 months	St Luke's Church, Oamaru	76/527	Rachel Grace, Mother	3 February 1876	Revd. Algernon Gifford
471	11 February 1876	James Stewart Frances Underwood	James Stewart Frances Underwood 💍 1876/636	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	30 18	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 2 years	The Residence of Mr. Frederick Underwood in Cross Street, Oamaru	76/528	Frederick Underwood, Father	11 February 1876	Revd. John Armitage
472	17 February 1876	Thomas Moore Hedwig Nicoline Westergaard	Thomas Moore Hederig Nicoline Westergaard 💍 1876/656	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 21	Oamaru Oamaru	14 days 14 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	76/578		17 February 1876	The Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru
473	17 February 1876	Daniel Joyce Mary Carroll	Daniel Joyce Mary Carroll 💍 1876/620	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	22 22	Oamaru Oamaru	7 months 7 months	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	76/536		17 February 1876	Revd. Jeremiah Donovan

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).